During a typical practice session, a golfer will usually hit a large number of golf balls from one area to another. This leads to the golfer having to retrieve or "shag" all of the hit balls. This "shagging" operation will usually require that the golfer bend over to retrieve each ball. This repetitive movement is inconvenient and can overly stress the golfer's back muscles.
A number of products have been invented to facilitate the ball retrieval process. Typical of these products are the MacDonald retrievers shown in his U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,937,828 and 2,203,170. Each of these retrievers includes a tubular receiver that has a check-valve structure located at its bottom end. The check-valve structure allows only one-way travel of the ball into the bottom of the tube. By using retrievers of this type, a golfer is not required to bend over to retrieve the ball. The golfer merely pushes the bottom end of the tubular receiver over the ball and the ball is then forced into the retriever where it is stored until it is removed from the top portion of the unit.
While prior art golf ball retrievers have significantly eased shagging of golf balls, a golfer still must keep track of the number of balls that are collected. For example, if a golfer hits twenty-five balls, he or she must mentally keep track of the number of balls collected to ensure that none of the balls has been lost or gone uncollected. While MacDonald shows numerical indicia on the side of the retriever described in his '828 patent, these indicia are not readily visible when the retriever is in use. In addition, the indicia system he uses cannot be readily applied to the more common types of retrievers typified by the retriever shown in his '170 patent.
Therefore, prior art ball retrievers do not conveniently provide a running count of the balls collected using the retriever. In addition, many golfers may wish to keep track of the total number of balls hit during a practice session in which the retriever has been filled and emptied a plurality of times. There are no prior art devices that can record and provide this information.